Scorsese likes films with a dark subversive touch that like his own movies reveal the anguished soul of modern man. Nonetheless, he seems to like all the right movies and directors for my tastes, and he's extremely intellegent about them. Sometimes, I feel that he's a better analyst of films than he is a director of them.

To go along with topics such as Favorite Films by Director or my posts about Golden Age scores vs. new scores, I thought this might be a good starting point for many of you less familiar with older films and directors to understand the accomplishments of a less recent cinema and how the earlier pioneers paved the way for the cinema of today. It has tons of clips and cuts to the chase so that you don't have to be bored watching whole films from a strange era and get the essentials of what he considers important right away.

Also, an extra plus is the short but sweet score, primarily for flute and piano, by Elmer Bernstein.

NP :

Scorsese seems to be as much a film historian as he is a director/autuer. Several years ago, I read the book "Martin Scorsese:A Journey" by Mary Pat Kelly. The book is essentially a conversation with Scorsese working through his films up to and I think including Casino. His lifelong study of films is very apparent in the book, which is a recommended read on the man.

It's interesting to watch the many films he talks about and try to see what he sees in them. This goes especially for the low budget film noir he is so fond of. Naturally, I've seen some of the standard film noir, but he points toward a number of them that have essentially been lost or forgotten...not necessarily because they aren't any good...it seems more that they weren't made by a major studio or filmmaker and have simply become lost in the archives among their more famous bretheren.

The acting in some of these films seems questionable (given that the budgets could only allow for lesser known and talented actors), but the filmmaking talents of such directors as Val Lewton are top notch in creating visuals and atmosphere. It's a shame that filmmakers today seem to go for the literal and overtly realistic. They could learn much from the filmmakers that Scorsese talks about.

For me, he also points me toward other films and filmmakers that I've essentially avoided for a long time. I can't think of many Vincent Minelli films I've seen, but after seeing The Bad and the Beautiful, I know I want to see more. Just the last scene with all the people easdropping on the phone is brilliant in what it conveys.

The same applies to the films of Anthony Mann (psychologic undertone in his westerns), Nicholas Ray (wow - the use of color in Johnny Guitar!), and the musicals of the 30's and 40's.